Never Say Never

Ellen Creager, MCT

A nice thing about seeing Monet¿s garden in Giverny is that everything was not perfect there. It had a bit of wildness to it, as well as a lot of color. And a lot of color provided by annuals too. Here, Nasturtiums creep across the wide pebble path at painter Claude Monet's home and garden in Giverny, France. The creeping nasturtiums were a gardening mistake that Monet decided he liked.

A nice thing about seeing Monet¿s garden in Giverny is that everything was not perfect there. It had a bit of wildness to it, as well as a lot of color. And a lot of color provided by annuals too. Here, Nasturtiums creep across the wide pebble path at painter Claude Monet's home and garden in Giverny, France. The creeping nasturtiums were a gardening mistake that Monet decided he liked. (Ellen Creager, MCT)

Kathy Hudson

About a month ago, I said I was finished planting annuals for the season. Wrong. I just planted six more on Sunday morning.

And some pruning. I bought some big pink begonias on sale at Green Fields Saturday morning, after my husband and I had spent two hours pruning an aucuba bush that had become a giant.

This old aucuba was covering the good-looking, sculpted brick pillar at the beginning of our fence. I thought it would be a good welcome-home to our neighbors to see that pillar and a pruned aucuba that’s part of our shared landscape.

Sunday morning, I planted what turned out to be six begonias in those two pots. I also planted the two hydgrangeas left over from Easter. This led to more weeding, edging and putting down a bag of pine fines on the bed with new begonias and hydrangeas. Now at least one bed in our garden looks tidy. It gives me momentum to do more, but I don’t feel pressed.

Another nice thing about seeing Monet’s garden in Giverny is that everything was not perfect there. It had a bit of wildness to it, as well as a lot of color. And a lot of color provided by annuals too.